New European Union prize for literature to be awarded in 2009

The aim is to put the spotlight on the creative and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature, promote more circulation of literature within Europe and greater interest in non-national literary works. The first edition of the Prize will be awarded in autumn 2009. The European Prize for contemporary literature will consist of an award to a European Ambassador of literature and a prize for a winning emerging talent from each of the participating countries in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively.

The Federation of European Publishers working together with the European Booksellers Federation and the European Writers' Congress has been selected to organize the selection process and the 2009 award ceremony.

The prize is financed by the Culture Programme of the European Union (1), which already supports awards for European music (the EBBA Awards), for contemporary architecture and for cultural heritage. The programme stimulates transnational cultural cooperation projects involving operators from a minimum of three different countries participating in the programme. It also provides specific support for the translation of literary works and is open to all cultural sectors except audiovisual for which a separate programme exists.

Further information

Press release http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1856&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr

Culture programme /culture/index_en.htm

Organising body http://www.fep-fee.be/http://www.ebf-eu.org/http://www.european-writers-congress.org/

(1) Amount of grant received by the organising body: € 227.874 for the period 01/12/2008 – 30/11/2009